Spire Pininfarina

The hardware manufacturer Spire has made a bit of a reputation for itself by producing cooling products, like stock replacement CPU coolers, but recently has done seen some growth. In a rather ambitious move they teamed up with the designer Pininfarina to produce the computer case that we will be looking to in this article.

The Pininfarina is a complex and interesting enclosure, definitely not what I would have expected from Spire or a company new to this segment of the hardware market. We had a chance to spend some time with one, so let’s see how Spire did with this performance enclosure.

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At at first glance the Spire looks sleek and very high-tech. Their goal with this case was to transform “the traditionally vapid pc case into a sophisticated and aerodynamic PC power house”, pretty strong words from a company that has limited experience in the case market, but with the help of the designers at Pininfarina these words at least have some backing. The matte black exterior is a set of thick aluminum panels that extend from the bezel, around the top, and onto the back. This plating is the case’s most noticeable design elements, but it also has a distinctive shape and lots of interesting features that appear as you start to examine the case.

One you have handled the Pininfarina you will know that this case is large and heavy. I would still call it a midtower, but is big enough to handle Extended ATX motherboards and weighs in at a hefty 29.3 pounds. The case is surprisingly heavy, but once you take a closer look it is impossible not to see how overbuilt the chassis is (1.0mm steel), how thick the exterior aluminum is (6.0mm), and how much stuff is packed inside of it. The thickness of the aluminum panels and the sheer bulk of the enclosure make the Pininfarina seem it was modeled after a tank, not the Ferraris and Masertis for which Pininfarina is known.

The bezel uses a relatively standard design in which the nearly blank front has a hidden door. This is done to maintain the smooth lines of the exterior and to keep the front as classy as possible, but the illusion falls apart when the door is opened. The action of the heavy door is not very smooth and shutting is it not particularly easy, which indicates that the build quality is lacking. Behind the front door are three exposed 5.25″ bays and two 3.5″ ones, nothing else. The Pininfarina has no front I/O and the power and reset buttons, along with two LEDs, are above the door, where the bezel bends into the case’s top panel.

If you have not noted anything exceptional so far, you are not alone. Where the Pininfarina begins to deviate from standard ATX cases is at the side panels. Both of these have hinges on the bottom and can be opened to expose the interior. When opening the left panel the user will get access to the motherboard and drives, just like on any other case, but doing so with the right panel yields a much different result. When this is done the motherboard tray separates itself from the case and opens on the hinge. This makes the motherboard extremely easy to install and to work upon, so long as you have enough room. So while the Pininfarina does not have a removable motherboard tray, this option is just as good and means the motherboard can be removed from the interior compartment without taking out any of the expansion cards.

The rear of the case is extremely basic, just the expansion card slots and the I/O. There is an 80mm fan here that will allow for some cooling, but not nearly as efficiently as a 120mm fan, like that features at the intake, could have. Another 80mm fan is on the interior’s right side (over the upper hard drive bay) and there is space for on the left (over the video card), but it is not included.

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Looking at the interior we can see that the Pininfarina is a model of over-complexity. Both side doors can be pulled open from the top using the handle on the exterior. Inside there are two non-standard fan positions (one for the video card and one on the side of the hard drives but not much else cooling. The drive bays are quite basic, just the cages and a rail system. Spire did not add any frills like we have seen in some other premium cases, like hard drive silencing, cages facing the user, or an excess of cooling.

The motherboard is placed on a tray that is not removable but is easy to access because its opens along with the door on that side of the case. This means the motherboard is easy to install, to work on, and that the motherboard can be brought outside of the case without removing the expansion cards.

Conclusion

The Pininfarina is definitely an interesting computer case. Spire and their designers have put together something which is quite different from the typical case we have seen lately. The product is not for everyone: its looks are somewhat plain, it is very heavy, and the interior is unorthodox.

The people who designed this case clearly know a thing or two about making a product that looks interesting and has cool features. While that is great, they still have a few things to learn about performance computer cases. The lack of 120mm fans, silencing products, and tool-less features is going to be a major limitation to the product. The competition in the case market is just to intense to release something different if it is not also an improvement on what is currently available.